It is noticeable that the spelling of the name FENTY appears prevalent in the Aberdeen
area from 1700 onwards whereas the older spellings such as FINTY or WHYNTIE seem to have been retained in the Banff area, presumably, because the local “men o’ letters” were more aware of the
geographical derivation of the name so were more likely to spell it ‘correctly’ when annotating the parish records, accounts of Kirk Sessions or estate papers

The name is derived from a stretch of coastline and adjacent land between Portsoy and
Banff in Banffshire, Scotland. There is a Whyntie Head, a Whyntie Wood and two farms, Easter and Wester Whyntie. On old maps, Fynty or Whynty is shown as a definite settlement or
village.

In the north east Scottish dialect, the ‘wh’ sound is expressed as ‘f’ as in
‘Fit’s ‘at’ for ‘What’s that’.

It may be that the current place names represent an Anglicisation of a pre-existing
place name when standard O.S. maps were first introduced. Certainly, when asked, the local people still pronounce the name of the farms etc as ‘Fin - tay’.

As to the origin of the place name, it seemed, initially, unlikely to be Gaelic as this
area was previously Pictish, a race whose language is lost but was probably related to other Celtic languages such as Welsh. Gaelic is similar and there may have been a intermingling of languages in
the past..

It might be old Scots, referring to the type of stone available at that site. ‘Fin’ is
the old Scots for whin-stone or basalt. A geographical map shows Whyntie Head to be mostly flags and schists thus it is unlikely that this is the derivation of the name (vide
infra).

Research done by Commander Adrian Whyntie indicates a more likely and much older
derivation. I quote from his research work:

“In 1484 the Abbot and Convent of Arbroath
leased to Sir James Ogilvy of Deskford, knight, the greater tithes of the churches of Banff and Inverboyndie; the tithes of the lands of INVERQUHENTYNE, Ardbangane and Dullochie only
excepted."

The Inver prefix had disappeared by the 17th
century. The charter version of the name provides plenty of clues for speculation about its origin. The prefix INVER meaning "at the mouth of (a river)" demonstrates an origin of at least the Gaelic
age. At the same time it suggests QUHENTYNE was the old name of the nearest river or stream – the Burn of Boyne. Since Boyne and Boyndie probably come from a common origin it is highly likely that
the Burn of Boyne did have another name otherwise it would be confused with the Burn of Boyndie.

Breaking QUHENTYNE into its two elements we get QUHEN
and TYNE of which QUHEN must have been the stressed one. QUHEN is therefore the specific and could have been used to distinguish the stream from another in the district with the second element
TYNE

Going back to the 1st element QUHEN, the QUH
may represent a corrected back formation from F. This suggests Gaelic for fair, beneficial or white. Alternatively QUHEN may represent Pictish, Welsh, Pre-Celtic or Brythonic GWEN with exactly the
same meaning. With the 2nd element TYNE we are on surer ground. It is the name of two British rivers and has been identified as coming from the Indo – European root to flow, to melt or to
dissolve. It is either Celtic or pre-Celtic. It is related to Thames, Tamar and Teign.”

Thus, Inver-quhen-tyne would have
meant "at the mouth of the pretty stream".

The detail of the land lease is quoted from “Topography
and Antiquities of the Shires of Aberdeen and Banff.”

From the above detail it can be seen that the beginning
of the name originated with the letters QUH. The early Scottish alphabet did not include the letter F.

QUH was pronounced as ‘F’.

Extracts from documents relating to the land of Whyntie
occasionally spelt the place FENTIE.

The earliest recorded name is of an Andrew QUHENTY and
he was living on the land of QUHENTY in 1542.

The record of this also mentions the land of
Ardbrangand, Threpland and Duloquhy, all farms names still in use today. This also ties in with the earlier record dated 1484. There is a record of this held in the history centre in
Elgin.

What is significant is that this would have been a very
early use of a surname in Scotland, and that it places the name of the family with the name of the place.

A later charter given in 1625 by Charles I to William
Ogilvie of Boyne mentions

"the lands of Cowhyth and Scotismylne, Ardbrangan, Cairntoun, Fentie and Greinfauld, Thripland and
Greincoitt,

the lands of Dolloquhyis (Over and Nether) with the new lands thereof,"

There is a family story common to the Whyntie family and to the Fenty family as to
their origins from a survivor or survivors of a shipwreck.

Adrian Whyntie, in researching his own ancestors, was told by the Banff fishermen, who
had known of John Whyntey as a lay preacher, of local lore connecting the name of WHYNTEY to a shipwreck. The same family legend exists in the FENTY family.

The fact that this lore is common to both families when the name spelling has diverged
so much suggests it is of some antiquity.

This would be in keeping with the origin of the name from a stretch of coastline with
some fairly treacherous rocks that might well have resulted in the wreck of one of the coastal trading vessels, a common enough event in earlier times.

The appearance of the surname Quhenty before 1588, would seem to rule
out the Spanish Armada, wrecked all around the coast of Britain, as a source of sailors but it is just possible that such survivors or those from other wrecked vesels married into or augmented, an
existing group of families.

Just along the coast lies Rosehearty said to be founded by shipwrecked
Danes.

Certainly, the bay below Whyntey Head has long arms of outlying rocks on both
sides.

No easy place to sail into in stormy
weather.

.

N.B. Scottish records were looted and destroyed twice in Scottish history. First by
Edward I and Edward II of England in the Wars of Independence in the thirteenth/fourteenth centuries and again by Cromwell in the seventeenth century. Thus, earlier records are difficult
to piece together.

Between 1645 and 1715, climatic change produced the “Little Ice Age” with cold summers
and long harsh winters. Harvests failed leading to famine, deaths and migration with the resultant sudden disappearance of many people from the records.